A Family Resemblance

Last Saturday after Caleb was done with his baseball evaluations I let the boys play on the church playground. At first I didn’t see anyone else I knew to talk to so I decided to watch the boys more from a distance and see how they did without me. I sat down on a bench a bit away from the playground itself. After a few minutes a couple of ladies started walking away from the playground, and I could hear them talking about how cute a certain little boy was. Then one of them said, “His name is Malachi.” As they passed by they casually looked toward me as I happened to be in their line of sight. I don’t think they knew I was the mom of the child they were just discussing, after all there isn’t any family resemblance. It made me feel good to hear others talking nicely about my precious little boy, and at the same time it was interesting to think about the fact that no matter how strong the emotional connections we have, there aren’t any biological connections to tie us to each other, nothing that would ever make people think he was my child without seeing our interaction.

On the way home later that day I passed a church sign that read, “A child of the King should bear a family resemblance.” It was interesting, especially in light of what I had just been thinking on the playground. We have 3 children who are all 3 different races from 3 different countries, only 1 of which is our biological child. Future adoptions will probably only add to the beautiful rainbow within our family. With such a mix as that can there possibly be any family resemblance among us? I hope so. I hope people are able to see our family as a beautiful representation of the miracle of adoption, of the love that binds our children to us far more strongly than genetics. I hope we are able to pass our values and morals on to our children, that they will choose to be men and women of God, and that they will seek to live a righteous life following His Word. I hope we are able to teach all of our children, biological and adopted, of God’s love for us, of his ADOPTION of us (“He predestined us to be ADOPTED as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.” -Ephesians 1:5).

The Bible says we “are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26) Indeed, we as Christians are children of the King, and we should seek to bear a family resemblance to Him. Others are looking at us, and our words and actions can either make them want to join our family of Believers or turn away. Seek to show them God’s love, to show them the joy that comes from knowing Christ as Lord and Savior of your life. Encourage them to become a part of our family of Believers, to become a child of the King.

Of our 3 children, only 1 has a biological connection to us. Our adopted children not only have no biological connection to us, they even differ in race from us. Ethnically one is Vietnamese and the other is Indian. They bear no physical resemblance to us, and yet they do resemble us in so many other ways – our words, our actions, our values, our morals, etc. As Christians we have all been ADOPTED by the King, he is our FATHER through the spirit of ADOPTION (“You have received a spirit of ADOPTION as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” -Romans 8:15). We are children of the King, and as such we should seek to bear a family resemblance to Him, to be like Him so that others may see Him in us.

“The Lord is God, and He has made His light shine upon us.” (Psalm 118:27) “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) God's light shines upon us, and we are to let our light shine before men that they may see Him, our Father, through us. Are you a child of the King? If so, do you bear a family resemblance to Him?

Baseball Evaluation Day

On Saturday we had evaluations for Outward baseball at church. Caleb is pretty excited about playing, but the best part is that Daddy will be coaching! There were several different stations for the evaluations, and when we first started Caleb's evaluation Ernie was no where to be seen, which bothered Caleb. I told Caleb he was probably just helping out on the other field, and sure enough when we were sent over there for the batting station there was Daddy! It was pretty cool that of all the different positions in which the men were helping Ernie was the one helping the kids with batting. Of course it made the pictures of Caleb's first time batting that much better, but it was also sweet to see him coaching Caleb on how to bat. When Caleb's evaluation was done I let the boys play on the church playground for several more hours (yes, hours), while I had fun talking. Later I went down to watch Ernie coaching at the batting station. It was sweet seeing how he interacted with all the kids, and it made me realize just how much being a dad has changed him. I was really proud to see him there stepping out of his normal role in the career world into a new role, and I know Caleb is going to love having his Daddy coach his team!

A Few Old Favorites

I took these pictures of Caleb when he was just 6 months old. It's hard to believe how big my precious little baby is getting. Though life has been way too busy for us during his nearly 5 years, I do my best to treasure every moment with him. I don't fuss about him sleeping with me, about carrying him, or holding him because I know all too soon the day will come when he no longer wants to sleep with me and he's too big for me to hold. I miss those sweet baby days with him, but I also enjoy these crazy preschool years with him where every day is a new adventure waiting to be filled with fun. I love that I am the lucky mom who gets to share these days with him. I know when he is big I will miss him being little, but I don't want to regret not spending time with him. I have been immeasurably blessed by God with my precious little Caleb, and I pray I am able to be the mom he deserves and give him all the love and attention he needs.

Snow Day

After spending so many years in sunny Florida we have been very excited to see snow this winter. We have had several good snow days, and quite often even when it isn't snowy here at home we can still see it in the mountains from our windows. These pictures were from our Groundhog Day snow back on February 2.




Being from southern India with its extremely hot climate it has been a bit of an adjustment for Malachi to get used to our weather. Each time it has snowed he has been quite hesitant to participate in the fun. He doesn't like the cold and can't figure out how to do anything with his mittens on. He didn't stay out too long, but I did manage to get a few pictures of our little Indian prince before he ran back inside to the warmth of home.


More than anything Caleb loved eating the snow. He caught it with his tongue as it was falling, he used his hands to scoop it into his mouth, and then he used our ADT sign as a shovel/plate combo from which he could eat it. He had lots of fun playing in the snow, but eating it was the best!




I don't get pictures of Christina as often as I do the boys. While they are always doing things that make for great pictures, she spends most of her time shut in her room watching tv. I was happy to get some good ones of her on this day, especially some good ones of her in the snow. Since she spent the first 12 years of her life in Siberia she loves the snow and was very happy to have another good snow day (especially since it got her out of school).

Fun at the Fire Station

Not quite 2 weeks ago (on February 20) our church had a field trip to the fire station for preschoolers. This was a day of great excitement for Caleb and Malachi! Caleb has been to the fire station several times before (though never to this one), but this was Malachi's first trip. Caleb is absolutely in love with fire trucks, firemen, fire stations, and anything that has to do with emergencies and rescues. As such he has several fire truck movies he watches and more than a few books as well. He can literally talk your ear off about fire trucks and how they work, the firemen's tools, using different substances for different fires (e.g. water on a house fire and foam for a jet crash), using water bombers for forest fires, etc. Needless to say despite having seen and heard it all before he was quite interested to experience it again, and though we always have fun at the fire station it was especially fun to be there with so many other good friends.







Since Malachi wears all of Caleb's outgrown clothes the boys don't usually have matching outfits. However after I bought this t-shirt for Caleb a few months ago, Malachi was so upset he didn't have one that I went back to WalMart and got one for him too. He happen to still fit one of Caleb's outgrown red turtlenecks, and black pants are so generic I have these same ones in sizes 24months - 5T (I bought them in advance when they were cheap knowing they'd eventually get worn). The boys matched all the way, even down to their shoes! They looked so cute together! Though they don't usually get to dress alike, it was fun to have them matching on a field trip with so many other kids around. Most of the siblings in the group actually looked somewhat alike. Since Caleb and Malachi don't look anything alike dressing them alike gave them a way to still look like brothers. They loved it!